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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/03/26 in all areas
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9 points
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Possibly, I will post pics to reveal on the night.2 points
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Are you at a specialist trade show like the ones you tease Dave about2 points
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1 point
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More bits for the XI... Handbrake lever with bracket for warning switch. Needs to be loosened off somewhat.... Handbrake switch. Handbrake mounting bracket. Couldn't be bothered to de-rust and repaint the one I have for the price of a new one... Mounting screws. Existing ones are very chewed and may need drilling out....1 point
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That's one way, the CAN units also broadcast battery voltage but also the transmitter LED turns red when it's low. Otherwise you can measure voltage with a multimeter across the terminals in situ. But unless you have a button pressed on, the battery should last 10 years in a Westie1 point
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1 point
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Fortune smiled on me this weekend due to a mix of circumstances. Firstly, my Mondeo decided to overheat on me on the way back to my parents on Thursday, so the AA recovered me back home on Friday afternoon. Very good service I must say, one chap delivering me to Solstice Services where another chap arrived within a few mins to take me the rest of the way. Seems like it is likely a water pump or thermostat issue. Hoping it can be repaired as a) I can’t afford a replacement currently and b) I desperately want to get it through 200k miles, currently just over 195k. Secondly, Mrs Stu had a friend down, and was out and about in her car, so the net result was that the Westfield was my only means of transport for the weekend, what a shame as my daughter had her singin’, dancin’ and actin’ lesson for 3 hours on Saturday morning in Yeovil…… Thirdly, the car was back together and generally functioning apart from a broken Speedo (officer). GPS had to come to the rescue. Finally. It was dry, and a little bit sunny. I dropped the short (though growing ever taller!) one at her lesson at 10.15, then had three hours before picking her up at 13.15. I hadn’t been North in the car for a while so headed up to Cheddar Gorge. It was fairly steady going most of the way up, but just nice to be out in the sunshine. The gorge itself was quiet, and I followed a nice looking M2 until part way up where I stopped for a couple of minutes before completing the run. I then caught up with said M2 stuck behind a van in the derestricted part afterwards, and as the van turned off left, off shot the M2, so I followed . He was bl**dy quick on the straights, but I kept up through the corners and we had quite a fun run for a while before encountering traffic so I trailed him all the way down to Wells where I stopped for a quick coffee. Time was ticking on so I headed back to Yeovil arriving with 5 mins to spare. We had a fun run back to Crewkerne, had a spot of lunch and walked the dog before hopping in the car again down to West Bay. Normal fun through Beaminster Tunnel and some of the clear sections on the way down. It was a tad chilly by the coast but the seas were well worth watching and we warmed up with a hot chocolate before heading back. Spotted a nice old Landie in West Bay too So, probably 4.5 hours in the car in total. Great fun to be out; the car is going well, steering wheel mods (Blinkstop system) working very well so bring on the spring! Here is a little YT compilation for your amusement:1 point
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Quite a few around here. Devon and Somerset group meet in Cullompton but Dorset meet in Bridport which would suit you better. I’m planning a bit of a run around down to Portland Bill and back via Sherborne for a BBQ at mine, likely in September which you are welcome to join. I can add you to our WhatsApp group too so you know if anyone is heading out. Adge has a similar one for Dorset.1 point
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These arrived today, hopefully enough in here to join most of the XI loom bits together. Main loom is on order from Autosparks, have gone for a generic loom with more circuits than I currently need. It can take up to 14 weeks to arrive... will have to get on with something else for a bit... Also in recent arrivals was an IVA foglight module from MK sports cars along with a momentary toggle switch to trigger the latching relay.1 point
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1 point
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Most of the documents I had seem to have been lost to time, and a major (home) server crash 15 years ago, this is one of the surviving bits of info I have from one of the independent Caterham tests; sadly I can't remember who from, to credit them, not could I find it still on line in just a quick Googling. For those interested! (Obviously, this all pre-dates the fluid analysis modelling that's been done over the last decade or so!) " From Curborough Site I was lucky enough to have my car selected for the test session. Following various conversations with Graham Kendall, who not only manages the Wind Tunnels at MIRA, but also competes with daughter Claire (yes that Claire) in the rapid Metro, I prepared a few add on devices in readiness for the limited time available for the structured tests in the Wind Tunnel, whilst some other lucky club members had a tour around the facility. Apart from the obvious Caterham design I had added a full flat floor under tray and rear diffuser. Previous theories on airflow meant that I already raced with the front number plate mounted low down on the front of the nose cone. Yes I know you are all asking, "Why on earth would you want to do wind tunnel tests on something as un-aerodynamic as a Caterham 7?" Well even though it has the aerodynamics of a brick, there are still very useful things that can be accomplished using a test facility such as the Full Scale Wind Tunnel at MIRA. Armed with a multitude of cardboard cut outs and tank tape I was aiming to reduce lift on the front axle to balance the car and hopefully improve the drag at the same time. The first series of tests consisted of a splitter below the number plate, an additional spoiler below and blending. I won't bore you all with the full technical results but in summary these changes actually reduced aerodynamic drag and lift at the front. The action of reducing front lift actually increased rear lift by pitching the car around its centre of gravity. The next areas of attention were the front cycle wings. The theory was that air flowed both above and below the wing surface acting exactly like the wing of a plane. This caused a depression on the top surface relative to the air below causing lift. Blanking off the gap between the wheel and the wing did indeed reduce lift and drag, but without increasing rear lift. These results were further enhanced with the addition of a low sharp edge towards the back of the wing in an attempt to trip the air up and not follow the contour causing depression. At this stage CD (drag) had been reduced by 3% and front lift decreased by a whopping 14kg. How could I not resist looking at the front suspension? Now obviously I couldn't remove it all so I made covers for all the exposed round section tubes to change them to pear drop section. Although improvements were made, they were nowhere near as big as the effort in making the new sections! Another few kilos of rear lift were lost by adding wheel deflectors to the lower edge of the rear wings in front of the rear tyres, but at the expense of a little drag. Then came the addition of side skirts to the car. I set these to give ground clearance at all times under racing conditions. These had an overall reduction in lift of 9 kg but a slight drag increase. As I stated earlier I had already fitted a very pretty carbon fibre rear diffuser. However the shape of this was wrong based on textbook theory. The MIRA experts decided it was not long enough and the diffuser angle was nowhere near the optimum range. Copious additions of very stiff cardboard went some way to correcting this situation. But no matter what we tried, the best solution was to consign it to a very large skip! (The diffuser, not the car!) From a suggestion by one of the group present, we also added additional blending profiles to the windscreen posts. Although not strictly legal in my racing class, it did improve drag very slightly. Lastly for amusement I removed all of the weather equipment (roof and doors). This increased the drag force through the proverbial roof requiring a further 10bhp at 100 miles/hour, but actually created some more rear down force. I would like to thank Graham Kendall, Ivan Starkey & Paul Atkin for making this very interesting visit happen and for the opportunity to complete these tests, which sadly I have not had chance to convert into road/race-worthy modifications."1 point
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Very impressive @Davemk1 we look forward to seeing the update after you've tested at speed. I really like how you're incrementally improving your car for it's task.1 point
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It's now looking like I'll need to give this one a miss, sorry. Have a good natter gents!0 points
